Today’s hot topic deals with teacher’s & trainer’s vulnerability in distance education. This is a very important subject as many of us at times feel vulnerable and cannot come up with the correct answer on the spot.

In this video I share 5 strategies that help me feel vulnerable and safe at the same time in a distance classroom.

Strategy #2: Confidence is overrated. Keep doing what you are doing, and confidence will come

Strategy #3: Be authentic and vulnerable

Strategy #4: Change your role online

Strategy #5: Don’t give away your power

I appreciate any comments or additional suggestions for Karen! Please provide your insights under the video.

She’s talking to recent graduates and grad students, but much applies more broadly. She talks of graduate students needing to learn how to teach themselves about topics of interest. I believe that we should encourage this in students from the earliest grades.

BBC News reports on research showing that praising a student’s intelligence can diminish their motivation to perform, whereas praising their efforts can do the opposite. This is related to a “fixed mindset” versus a “growth mindset.” The former attitude is that talent is inherent – one has it or not; the latter attitude is that talent increases with practice and effort.

Creative Commons is a way of retaining rights to material between full copyright and public domain. They have a search page that allows one to limit the results returned (see check boxes at the top of the page) by Google, Google Images, Flickr and other sites to ones with specific rights to re-use. Cybraryman has a web page with lots of related links, including a link to 30+ Creative Commons Sources.

Florida schools are using a Technology Integration Matrix that has down the side types of engagement with technology – Active, Collaborative, Constructive, Authentic and Goal Directed. Across the top are levels of engagement – Entry, Adoption, Adaptation, Infusion and Transformation. For each box in the matrix, there is a description and links to further material – one link each for 1-to-1 and shared access computing environments.